Monday, July 27, 2009

We went to North Carolina, with friends of ours, on Saturday. We spent about 6 hours on the beach. Dearth and I boogey boarded until our bodies couldn’t take it anymore. Deb watched and laughed at us.

The water was rough. It was probably the roughest we’ve ever boarded in. The waves were breaking in three different areas. In close (about calf deep), mid way (about waist deep) and about 20 feet out from there. The waist deep area is where we were trying to get to. From there you could hop the waves you did not want to ride and wait for a good one in reasonable safety.

Getting past the close waves was real work. Sometimes they were too high to bounce over and they would catch the board and send you for a ride. If you were lucky that ride consisted of getting pushed back several feet and a face full of ocean. If you were unlucky you got swept off of your feet and you got up close and personal with the ocean floor. I had the wind knocked out of me several times when a wave would hit me in the stomach or back just right.

Once you made it to the waist deep water it was a lot of fun. The waves were averaging between 4 and 6 feet. All you had to do was kick off in front of one of those and the wave did the rest for you. If you kept the nose of your board up, and did not let it get ripped out of your hands, the wave would take you all the way to the shore.

When the nose of the board dipped it would catch in the water and the wave cheerfully launched you right over the top. Dearth has an abrasion on his right shoulder blade from one of these spectacular wipeouts. It was assholes, elbows and an epic yard sale (this is when everything goes in different directions).

I had my boogey board ripped out of my hands when I was close to shore. The wave dropped me a couple of feet and the hard landing pulled the board away. My arm got caught up in the lanyard and it raked up my arm and attempted to pull my little finger off. All of that happened while I was getting a face full of sand, rocks and seashells. That was my first ride and the last time I let the board get away.

Every three or four rides called for about an hour time out. I would throw my board down on the sand and sit in the beach chair (breathing like I just sprinted a mile). Debra would just roll her eyes.

I hate being reminded, by my body, that I'm not as young as I used to be. I felt like I had gone three long rounds with Tyson the next day. Dearth did not reapply sun block to his back so he got a pretty nasty burn. Both of us had numerous cuts and bruises up and down our legs and feet. I had marks on my right arm and fingers from the lanyard and Dearth had some on his back from the pro wipeout.

Someone asked me if we were afraid of sharks. I told them "In those waves sharks were the least of our worries". Heck, if a shark had gotten me out there it would have been a mercy killing.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Last Sunday friends of ours invited us over for crab. Being from Western NY we immediately thought of snow crab legs. We were in for a real treat though. They had bought a few dozen steamed blue crab.

Eating snow crab legs is fairly barbaric. Using wooden mallets, shell crackers and some other medieval looking torture devices you hack your way through the shell and get to the meat.

The blue crabs are steamed whole. Like lobster they are still quite alive until the steam hits them. They are served the same way. Eating these fellows take barbarism to a whole new level.

You rip the legs off (sucking the meat that comes out of the joint). You flip the apron up and remove it. Then you stick your finger into the body cavity and scrape out the fat and guts. Pulling the shell off is next. More scrapping of the guts and lungs follow. Now you take a knife and you split the crab from the middle to the where the legs attach to the body (two cuts). This gives you access to all of the meat in the leg area. Here is a video showing how it is done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUW6_CTZd9U

The meal was a lot of fun. I will definitely be eating those again. Just remember to get in with both hands, don’t worry about the mess and don’t wear white.